Gordon joined Amazon's board in 2003. He joined Zynga's board in 2008.

This has to be an incredibly awkward situation. Boards have rules for handling conflicts of interest, of course. Gordon can simply recuse himself from conversations when Amazon's board discusses its games efforts.

But that ended poorly, with Schmidt quitting his board seat and Jobs threatening "thermonuclear war" on Google over charges that Android was too similar to the iPhone's software.

Another example Gordon is very familiar with: His Kleiner colleague John Doerr had previously served on the boards of both Google and Amazon. In 2003, Doerr stepped down from the Amazon board in favor of Gordon.

And yet!

The visible evidence suggests that both Amazon and Zynga may have somehow gotten comfortable with the idea of Gordon continuing to serve on both boards. Here's why.

So the company had to have known something was up. And there's been plenty of time to make a change if any of the people involved wanted one.

We don't know what methods, if any, Amazon will use to monetize its social games, and if there will be any head-to-head competition with Zynga fiscally speaking. Meanwhile, Gordon is brilliant and an incredibly valuable advisor to both companies.